N° CCI.

which feldom dies in a mind that has received an early tincture of it. Though it may feem extinguished for a while by the cares of the world, the heats of youth, or the allurements of vice, it generally breaks out and difcovers itfelf again as foon as difcretion, confideration, age, or misfortunes, have brought the man to himfelf. The fire may be covered and overlaid, but cannot be intirely quenched and fmothered.

A ftate of temperance, fobriety, and juftice, without devotion, is a cold, lifelefs, infipid condition of virtue; and is rather to be filed philofophy than religion. Devotion opens the mind to great conceptions, and fills it with more fublime ideas than any that are to be met with in the moft exalted science; and at the fame time warms and agitates the foul more than fenfual pleasure.

It has been obferved by fome writers, that man is more diftinguished from the animal world by devotion than by rea fon, as feveral brute creatures difcover in their actions fomething like a faint glimmering of reason, though they betray in no fingle circumftance of their behaviour any thing that bears the least affinity to devotion. It is certain the propenfity of the mind to religious worhip, the natural tendency of the foul to fly to fome fuperior Being for fuccour in dangers and diftreffes, the gratitude to an invifible fuperintendant which arifes in us upon receiving any extraordinary and unexpected good for. tune, the acts of love and admiration with which the thoughts of men are fo wonderfully tranfported in meditating upon the divine perfections, and the univerfal concurrence of all the nations under heaven in the great article of adoration, plainly fhew that devotion or religious worship must be the effect of tradition from fome first founder of mankind, or that it is conformable to the natural light of reafon, or that it proceeds from inftinet implanted in the foul itself. For my part, I look upon

ever

them

as the principle of divine worship, it manifeftly points to a Supreme Being, as the firit author of it.

I may take fome other opportunity of confidering thofe particular forms and methods of devotion which are taught us by chriftianity; but fhall here obferve into what errors even this divine principle may fometimes lead us, when it is not moderated by that right reafon which was given us as the guide of all our actions.

The two great errors into which a miftaken devotion may betray us, are enthusiasm and superstition.

There is not a more melancholy object than a man who has his head turned with religious enthufiafm. A perfon that is crazed, though with pride or malice, is a fight very mortifying to human nature; but when the diftemper arifes from any indifcreet fervours of devotion, or too intenfe an application of the mind to it's mistaken duties, it deferves our compaffion in a more parti cular manner. We may however learn this leffon from it, that fince devotion itself (which one would be apt to think could not be too warm) may disorder the mind, unless it's heats are tempered with caution and prudence, we should be particularly careful to keep our reafon as cool as poffible, and to guard ourselves in all parts of life against the influence of paffion, imagination, and conftitution.

Devotion, when it does not lie under the check of reafon, is very apt to degenerate into enthufiafm. When the mind finds herfelf very much inflamed with her devotions, he is too much inclined to think they are not of her own kin dling, but blown up by fomething divine within her. If the indulges this thought too far, and humours the grow ing paffion, the at last flings herself into imaginary raptures and extafies; and when once the fancies herfelf under the influence of a divine impulfe, it is no wonder if the flights human ordinances,

and

and refufes to comply with any eftablished form of religion, as thinking herself directed by a much fuperior guide. As enthufiafm is a kind of excefs in devotion, superstition is the excess not only of devotion, but of religion in general, according to an old heathen faying, quoted by Aulus Gellius- Religentem effe oportet, religiofum nefas;' A man should be religious, not fuperftitious: for as the author tells us, Nigidius obferved upon this paffage, that the Latin words which terminate in fus generally imply vicious characters, and the having of any quality to an excefs.

An enthusiast in religion is like an obftinate clown, a fuperftitious man like an infipid courtier. Enthufiafm has fomething in it of madnefs, fuperftition of folly. Most of the fects that fall fhort of the church of England have in them trong tinctures of enthusiasm, as the Roman Catholic religion is one huge overgrown body of childish and idle fuperftitions.

The Roman Catholic church feems indeed irrecoverably loft in this particular. If an abfurd drefs or behaviour be introduced in the world, it will foon be found out and difcarded: on the contrary, a habit or ceremony, though never fo ridiculous, which has taken fanctuary in the church, ticks in it for ever. A Gothic bishop, perhaps, thought it proper to repeat fuch a form in fuch parti

cular fhoes or flippers; another fancied it would be very decent if fuch a part of public devotions were performed with a mitre on his head, and a crofier in his hand. To this a brother Vandal, as wife as the others, adds an antic dress, which he conceived would allude very aptly to fuch and fuch mysteries, until by degrees the whole office has degenerated into an empty show.

Their fucceffors fee the vanity and inconvenience of these ceremonies; but inftead of reforming, perhaps add others, which they think more fignificant, and which take poffeffion in the fame manner, and are never to be driven out after they have been once admitted. I have feen the pope officiate at St. Peter's, where, for two hours together, he was bufied in putting on or off his different accoutrements, according to the dif ferent parts he was to act in them.

Nothing is fo glorious in the eyes of mankind, and ornamental to human nature, fetting afide the infinite advantages which arife from it, as a strong, fteady, mafculine piety; but enthusiasm and fuperftition are the weaknesses of human reafon, that expofe us to the fcorn and derifion of infidels, and fink us even below the beafts that perish.

Idolatry may be looked upon as another error arifing from mistaken devotion; but because reflections on that fubject would be of no ufe to an Englifh reader, I fhall not enlarge upon it.

L

mafter, during the combat, was full of

and he could truft him with untold gold. As I am generally in the theory of mankind, I could not but make my reflec tions upon the fudden popularity which was raifed about the lad; and perhaps, with my friend Tacitus, fell into ob fervations upon it, which were too great

for

for the occafion; or afcribed this general favour to caules which had nothing to do towards it. But the young blackfmith's being a gentleman was, methought, what created him good-will from his prefent equality with the mob about him: add to this, that he was not fo much a gentleman, as not, at the fame time that he called himself fuch, to ufe as rough methods for his defence as his antagonist. The advantage of his having good friends, as his mafter expreffed it, was not lazily urged; but he fhewed himself fuperior to the coachman in the perfonal qualities of courage and activity, to confirm that of his being well allied, before his birth was of any fervice to him.

If one might moralize from this filly ftory, a man would fay, that whatever advantages of fortune, birth, or any other good, people poffefs above the reit of the world, they fhould fhew collateral eminences befides thofe diftinctions; or thofe diftinctions will avail only to keep up common decencies and ceremonies, and not to preferve a real place of favour or eftcem in the opinion and common fenfe of their fellow-creatures.

The folly of people's procedure, in imagining that nothing is more neceffary than property and fuperior circumftances to fupport them in diftinction, appears in no way fo much as in the domeitic part of life. It is ordinary to feed their humours into unnatural cxcrefcences, if I may fo fpeak, and make their whole being a wayward and uneafy condition, for want of the obvious reflection that all parts of human life is a commerce. It is not only paying wages and giving commands, that contitutes a master of a family; but prudence, equal behaviour, with readiness to protect and cherish them, is what entitles a man to that character in their very hearts and fentiments. It is pleafant enough to obferve, that men expect from their dependents, from their fole motive of fear, all the good effects which a liberal education, and affluent fortune, and every other advantage, cannot produce in themfelves. A man will have his fervant juft, diligent, fober, and chafte, for no other reafons but the terfor of lofing his mafter's favour; when all the laws divine and human cannot keep him whom he ferves within bounds, with relation to any one of thofe virtues. But both in great and ordinary affairs,

all fuperiority, which is not founded on merit and virtue, is fupported only by artifice and ftratagem. Thus you fee flatterers are the agents in families of humourifts, and thofe who govern themfelves by any thing but reafon. Make bates, diftant relations, poor kinímen, and indigent followers, are the fry which fupport the econoniy of an humourfome rich man. He is eternally whispered with intelligence of who are true or falfe to him in matters of no confequence, and he maintains twenty friends to defend him against the infi nuations of one who would perhaps cheat him of an old coat.

I fhall not enter into further fpeculation upon this fubject at prefent, but think the following letters and petition are made up of proper fentiments on this occafion.

MR. SPECTATOR,

I Am a fervant to an old lady who is

governed by one fhe calls her friend; who is fo familiar an one, that he takes upon her to advise her without being called to it, and makes her uneafy with all about her. Pray, Sir, be pleated to give us fome remarks upon voluntary counsellors; and let thefe people know that to give any body advice, is to fav to that perfon- I am your betters.' Pray, Sir, as near as you can, defcribe that eternal flirt and difturber of families, Mrs. Taperty, who is always vifiting, and putting people in a way, as they call it. If you can make her stay at home one evening, you will be a general benefactor to all the ladies-women in town, and particularly to your loving friend,

MR. SPECTATOR,

SUSAN CIVIL,

I Am a footman, and live with one of

thofe men, each of whom is faid to be one of the bett-humoured men in the world, but that he is paffionate. Pray be pleafed to inform them, that he who is paffionate, and takes no care to command his haftinefs, does more injury to his friends and fervants in one half hour, than whole years can atone for. This mafter of mine, who is the bett man alive in common fame, difobliges fomebody every day he lives; and strikes me for the next thing I do, because he is out of humour at it. If thefe gentlemen knew that they do all the mischief 3 D

that

that is ever done in converfation, they would reform; and I who have been a fpectator of gentlemen at dinner for many years, have feen that indifcretion does ten times more mifchief than illnature. But you will represent this better than your abufed humble fervant, THOMAS SMOKY.

TO THE SPECTATOR.

THE HUMBIE PETITION OF JOHN STEWARD, ROBERT BUTLER, HARRY COOK, AND ABIGAIL CHAMBERS, IN BEHALF OF THEMSELVES AND THEIR RELATIONS, BELONGING TO AND DISPERSED IN THE SEVERAL SERVICES OF MOST OF THE GREAT FAMILIES WITHIN THE CITIES OF LONDON AND WESTMINSTER,

SHEWETH,

THAT in many of the families in which your petitioners live and are employed, the feveral heads of them are wholly unacquainted with what is bufinefs, and are very little judges when they are well or ill ufed by us your faid petitioners.

That for want of fuch skill in their own affairs, and by indulgence of their

own laziness and pride, they continually keep about them certain mifchievous animals called fpies.

That whenever a fpy is entertained, the peace of that house is from that moment banished.

That fpies never give an account of good fervices, but reprefent our mirth and freedom by the words, Wantonness and Disorder.

That in all families where there are fpies, there is a general jealousy and mifunderstanding.

That the mafters and miftreffes of fuch houfes live in continual fufpicion of their ingenuous and true fervants, and are given up to the management of those who are falfe and perfidious.

That fuch mafters and miftreffes who entertain fpies, are no longer more than cyphers in their own families; and that we your petitioners are with great difdain obliged to pay all our refpect, and expect all our maintenance from fuch fpies.

Your petitioners therefore most humbly pray, that you would reprefent the premifes to all perfons of condition; and your petitioners, as in duty bound, fhall for ever pray, &c.

HERE is a loofe tribe of men

Thom have not yet taken notice of, that ramble into all the corners of this great city, in order to feduce fuch unfortunate females as fall into their walks. Thefe abandoned profligates raife up iffue in every quarter of the town, and very often, for a valuable confideration, father it upon the churchwarden. By this means there are fiveral married men who have a little family in most of the parifnes of London and Westminster, and feveral bachelors who are undone by a charge of children. When a man once gives himfelf this

ADDISON.

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T

liberty of preying at large, and living

game in a populous city, that it is furprifing to confider the numbers which he fometimes propagates. We fee many a young fellow who is fearce of age, that could lay his claim to the jus trium liberorum, or the privileges which were granted by the Roman laws to all fuch as were fathers of three children: nay, I have heard a rake, who was not quite five and twenty, declare himself the father of a feventh fon, and very prudently determine to breed him up a phycian. In fhort, the town is full of thefe

younge

young patriarchs, not to mention feveral battered beaux, who, like heedlefs fpendthrifts that fquander away their eltates before they are matters of them, have raised up their whole ftock of children before marriage.

I must not here omit the particular whim of an impudent libertine, that had a little fimattering of heraldry; and obferving how the genealogies of great families were often drawn up in the fhape of trees, had taken a fancy to dif pofe of his own illegitimate iffue in a figure of the fame kind.

Nec longum tempus et ingens Exit ad cælum ramis felicibus arbos, Miraturque novas frondes, et non fua poma. VIRG. GEORG. II. VER. 80.

And in short space the laden boughs arife, With happy fruit advancing to the skies: The mother plant admires the leaves unknown Of alien trees, and apples not her own.

DRYDEN.

The trunk of the tree was marked with his own name, Will Maple. Out of the fide of it grew a large barren branch, inscribed Mary Maple, the name of his unhappy wife. The head was adorned with five huge boughs. On the bottom of the first was written in capital characters Kate Cole, who branched out into three fprigs, viz. William, Richard, and Rebecca. Sal. Twiford gave birth to another bough that hot up into Sarah, Tom, Will, and Frank. The third arm of the tree had only a fingle infant on it, with a fpace left for a fecond, the parent from whom it fprung being near her time when the author took this ingenious device into his head. The two other great boughs were very plentifully loaden with fruit of the fame kind; befides which there were many ornamental branches that did not bear. In fhort, a more flourishing tree never came out of the herald's office.

What makes this generation of vermin fo very prolific, is the indefatigable diligence with which they apply themfelves to their bufinefs. A man does not undergo more watchings and fatigues in a campaign, than in the courfe of a vicious amour. As it is faid of fome men, that they make their bufinefs their pleasure, theie fons of darkness may be faid to make their pleasure their bulinets. They might conquer their

corrupt inclinations with half the pains they are at in gratifying them.

Nor is the invention of thefe men lefs to be admired than their industry and vigilance. There is a fragment of Apollodorus the comic poet, who was contemporary with Menander, which is full of humour, as follows: Thou

mayeft fhut up thy doors,' fays he, with bars and bolts: it will be impoffible for the blackfinith to make them fo fast, but a cat and a whoremafter will find a way through them.' In a word, there is no head fo full of ftratagems as that of a libidinous man.

Were I to propose a punishment for this infamous race of propagators, it fhould be to fend them, after the fecond or third offence, into our American colonies, in order to people thofe parts of her Majesty's dominions where there is a want of inhabitants, and in the phrase of Diogenes, to plant men. Some Countries punish this crime with death; but I think fuch a banishment would be fufficient, and might turn this generative faculty to the advantage of the public.

In the mean time, until these gentlemen may be thus difpofed of, I would earnestly exhort them to take care of thofe unfortunate creatures whom they have brought into the world by thefe indirect methods, and to give their fpurious children fuch an education as may render them more virtuous than their parents. This is the beft atonement they can make for their own crimes, and indeed the only method that is left them to repair their past miscarriages.

I would likewife defire them to confider, whether they are not bound in common humanity, as well as by all the obligations of religion and nature, to make fome provifion for those whom they have not only given life to, but entailed upon them, though very unreasonably, a degree of fhame and difgrace. And here I cannot but take notice of thofe depraved notions which prevail among us, and which must have taken rife from our natural inclination to favour a vice to which we are fo very prone, namely, that bastardy and cuckoldom fhould be looked upon as reproaches, and that the ignominy, which is only due to lewdnefs and falfhood, fhould fall in fo unreasonable a manner upon the perfons who are innocent.

I have been infenfibly drawn into this 3D 2 difcourfe